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Processing sftp server read may cause null dereference

Type: advisorySources: OSV

A missing allocation check in sftp server processing read requests may cause a NULL dereference on low-memory conditions. The malicious client can request up to 4GB SFTP reads, causing allocation of up to 4GB buffers, which was not being checked for failure. This will likely crash the authenticated user's sftp server connection (if implemented as forking as recommended). For thread-based servers, this might also cause DoS for legitimate users. Given this code is not in any released versions, no security releases have been issued.

Products
Not specified
Affected versions
Not specified
Fixed versions
Not specified
CVEs
CVE-2023-3603
Confirmed fixed CVEs
Not specified
Updated in this feed
3 Nov 2026, 18:05 UTC · Revision 1

Source evidence

Processing sftp server read may cause null dereference

core-osv · Original source

Published 21 Jul 2023, 19:09 UTC

A missing allocation check in sftp server processing read requests may cause a NULL dereference on low-memory conditions. The malicious client can request up to 4GB SFTP reads, causing allocation of up to 4GB buffers, which was not being checked for failure. This will likely crash the authenticated user's sftp server connection (if implemented as forking as recommended). For thread-based servers, this might also cause DoS for legitimate users. Given this code is not in any released versions, no security releases have been issued.

osv:CVE-2023-3603
Complete source record
{
  "id": "a5df415e2af551a3df4b96d4f4018daba71179ea23eafe3cdc2de3237cf3d5c9",
  "url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-3603",
  "method": "structured",
  "payload": {
    "kind": "advisory",
    "title": "Processing sftp server read may cause null dereference",
    "summary": "A missing allocation check in sftp server processing read requests may cause a NULL dereference on low-memory conditions. The malicious client can request up to 4GB SFTP reads, causing allocation of up to 4GB buffers, which was not being checked for failure. This will likely crash the authenticated user's sftp server connection (if implemented as forking as recommended). For thread-based servers, this might also cause DoS for legitimate users. Given this code is not in any released versions, no security releases have been issued.",
    "evidence": "osv:CVE-2023-3603",
    "products": [],
    "severity": "low",
    "structured": {
      "id": "CVE-2023-3603",
      "aliases": [
        "CVE-2023-3603"
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "type": "CVSS_V3",
          "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L"
        }
      ],
      "affected": [
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "repo": "https://gitlab.com/libssh/libssh-mirror",
              "type": "GIT",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "04685a74df9ce1db1bc116a83a0da78b4f4fa1f8"
                }
              ],
              "database_specific": {
                "extracted_events": [
                  {
                    "cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:libssh:libssh:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "introduced": "0"
                      },
                      {
                        "fixed": "0.8.9"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "CPE_RANGE"
                  }
                ]
              }
            }
          ],
          "versions": [
            "libssh-0.8.8",
            "libssh-0.8.7",
            "libssh-0.8.6",
            "libssh-0.8.5",
            "libssh-0.8.4",
            "libssh-0.8.3",
            "libssh-0.8.2",
            "libssh-0.8.1",
            "libssh-0.8.0",
            "release-0-3-0"
          ],
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2023-3603.json"
          }
        }
      ],
      "modified": "2026-10-28T02:30:31.016441487Z",
      "provider": "osv",
      "references": [
        "https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/",
        "https://packages.fedoraproject.org/",
        "https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2023-3603",
        "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2023/3xxx/CVE-2023-3603.json",
        "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-3603",
        "https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2221791"
      ],
      "provider_metadata": {
        "cwe_ids": [
          "CWE-476"
        ],
        "cna_assigner": "redhat",
        "osv_generated_from": "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2023/3xxx/CVE-2023-3603.json"
      }
    },
    "related_cves": [
      {
        "value": "CVE-2023-3603",
        "evidence": "/id"
      }
    ],
    "security_relevant": true,
    "severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
  },
  "source_id": "core-osv",
  "document_id": 498198,
  "published_at": "2023-07-21T19:09:44.083+00:00"
}